Illinois shooters go cold in loss to Indiana

Friday

Jan 28, 2011 at 12:01 AMJan 28, 2011 at 4:12 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The schedule says it’s a good time for No. 20 Illinois to string some wins together, but the Illini aren’t listening. Illinois made just five field goals in the second half Thursday night and fell 52-49 to Indiana, which had lost eight of its previous nine games.

John Supinie

The schedule says it’s a good time for No. 20 Illinois to string some wins together, but the Illini aren’t listening.

Illinois made just five field goals in the second half Thursday night and fell 52-49 to Indiana, which had lost eight of its previous nine games.

After playing three consecutive games against Top 25 teams, the Illini began a stretch of three contests against teams closer to the bottom of the Big Ten Conference basketball standings than the national rankings. But the schedule doesn’t tell us everything, such as how hard it is to win at Indiana, whose fans still have a strong case of Hoosier Hysteria.

“We’ve got to get guys playing well again,’’ Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. “Just look at the numbers. We’re not playing good basketball. I’ve got to do it. It’s my fault. It’s my program. I’ve got to get them going.’’

The Illini had two shots to tie on the final possession, but 3-pointers from D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul bounced off. Anybody in a pair of candy-stripe warm-up pants managed to celebrate on the court after the game, while the Illini trudged back to the locker room.

Coming up small

So much for a three-game sweep in a stretch of games against Indiana, Penn State and Northwestern. The Illini have lost four of their last five and six of their last 10.

“It’s a turning point in the season, a big part of the season, which way we’re going,’’ Weber said. “It’s a disappointing loss. We have to fix the problems, plug the holes and come back against Penn State, which has given us problems.

“I don’t think we lost any confidence after (losing to) Ohio Sate. Now it’s my job to keep them up and keep them going.’’

Illinois dropped to 14-7 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten in a season that has lost all momentum. The Illini are idle this weekend before hosting Penn State on Tuesday (8 p.m., Big Ten Network).

The Illini had won 12 of the previous 16 games against Indiana, including four in a row and two straight here in Assembly Hall. But the Illini failed to secure its fourth three-game winning streak here in the history of the series.

Indiana coach Tom Crean didn’t make it to the postgame press conference for nearly an hour after shaking hands with “everyobdy in the building,’’ he said.

Forward Mike Davis scored 14 points to finish as the only Illini player in double figures. Reserve forward Jereme Richmond had nine points and 11 rebounds, but the Illini were 5-for-23 from the floor in the second half.

Paul drilled a 3-pointer for a 49-46 lead with 2 minutes 44 seconds left, but the Illini were 0-for-4 from the field.

“We got stops, but we couldn’t score,’’ Davis said. “We missed some bunnies and shots we normally make. You have to play super hard on the road and play better than we’re playing right now. (Indiana) isn’t the most talented team, but they play extremely hard.

“It hurts. You can’t let this linger. If it lingers too long, we’ll be in trouble.’’

“I attempted to shake hands with everybody in the building,’’ Crean said. “I got at least half of them. There’s no place in the country that supports a program that’s gone through what we’re going through like Indiana has supported us.’’

The Hoosiers were expected to fight to the finish against Illinois after coming up empty-handed in a 14-point loss at Iowa on Sunday, when Indiana was ripped by Crean for a lack of effort and poor defense. With limited athleticism and depth, the Hoosiers can’t afford to play at anything under 100 percent.

Indiana played without junior guard Verdell Jones III, the former Champaign Central star who couldn’t go because of knee pain. The team’s second-leading scorer at 12.9 points per game, Jones is the savvy floor leader. His only contribution to the night came before the game, when he accepted an honorary game ball for scoring 1,000 points in his college career.

The Hoosiers also played without starting guard Maurice Creek, who suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this month.
Indiana jumped to an 11-4 lead, a hint that this one wasn’t going to be easy. It was much worse than that for the Illini.